The ladies of St Laurence’s Church in Winslow have been flower arranging, decorating the church for the Coronation weekend. They did a fine job; I can add no more, so here are photos of just some of their flowers.

The Distance Project 39
Two years ago I visited Home Close, the field that’s the site of the annual Winslow Show. It was the August bank holiday, the day the show should have been on.

Of course it wasn’t held that year or the next, but I took some photos of the empty field, and posted them here on the North Bucks Wanderer.

I went back this year, for the first show since 2019. I duplicated my shots from my 2020 visit, and what a difference! I saw no social distancing going on and very few mask wearers. I took other photos too, and you can see a couple at the end of this post.

The Distance Project 18
Carrying on With the New Normal

(18th Sept 2020) This was taken on the August bank holiday Monday. On any other year the Winslow Show would have just opened and pedestrians would be walking in through this gate. The field, just across the road from Winslow Hall on Sheep Street, Winslow would be filled by the show.
I remember going to this show as a child, when it was called the Winslow Gymkhana.

(2022) At 9:30 am I saw a steady flow of people going through the gate; I‘d overheard a couple of stewards saying that show visitors were coming unusually early this year. The atmosphere was very relaxed.

The Monday Photo

At the Buddhist temple in Willen, Milton Keynes, these two pictures of the Queen are arranged as a small shrine.

The small photo in the white frame is from the opening of the Civic Offices, in 1979. Monks presented the Queen with a statue of the Buddha.

I burned incense in her memory at this shrine on Wednesday. Today, of course, is her funeral.

The Monday Photo

As I walked camera in hand from the Winslow Show, this cheeky lad presented his toy gun to me and said, “Give me your money or I’ll shoot you”

“Not if I shoot you first” I replied, and raised up my camera, switching it on and firing off today’s photo without even glancing at the controls. I didn’t even break stride.

“I shot you first” I said.

“No you didn’t!”

I just laughed at his cheekiness and kept on going. His partner in crime, also armed, is just on the edge of the photo.

There will be more shots from the Winslow Show soon. I made a point of going this year as part of the Distance Project, as I’m now revisiting previous subjects to see what’s changed now the lockdown is (Mostly) over.

Yep, I know the focus is off but I don't care; I've caught the moment.

I used a Sony A6000 and zoom lens for this photo.

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The Monday Photo

These are peace lanterns, all lit and ready to go; just some of the 200 lanterns that were pushed out on to North Willen Lake on Hiroshima Day, 6th August.

I know this was a few weeks ago, but this picture had to join the queue of Monday photos, and also this ain’t no news blog.

The ceremony, held by the monks and nuns of the Peace Pagoda and Buddhist temple at Willen, starts at the pagoda as the sun sets. Then as darkness fell the lanterns are all carried down to the lake side, where temple volunteers take them out on to the water.

I used to be a regular volunteer at the temple, and I’ve had a hand in all the stages of lantern construction.

I’ve seen the design evolve over the years. Over a dozen years ago we were using tea lights to illuminate the lanterns, but found their light was too low down.

Now the lanterns use half a candle, just the right length to put the flame half way up the lantern. The old empty tea lights are there to prevent the base getting scorched. If you look closely you can see blackening on a couple of the lanterns, but those are very old bases.

Origami
The four origami peace cranes on the top corners are a fairly new innovation; this year just one volunteer made them for all 200 lanterns.

The bases are made to suit a particular size of tissue paper. In the weeks before the ceremony it’s not unknown for a temple visitor to find themselves decorating the lantern tissue.

Every year as the day approaches the bases are dragged out of storage to be inspected and counted; every year a few have to be replaced. It’s a surprisingly quick job to knock out a batch of new bases to bring the number back up to 200. The shrine room in the temple gets filled with lanterns in various stages of construction, and just in time the lanterns are ready.

The day after the ceremony temple volunteers borrow the Parks Trust’s boat. They spend hours on the lake finding all the lanterns. The bases are cleaned and left to dry so they can go back in storage, ready for next year.

As you can see there’s far more to the Hiroshima Day Ceremony than just turning up, and it’s the same with many other events when most of the work is done by volunteers.

There are plenty of opportunities for volunteering in your local area. While the Peace Pagoda wouldn’t mind a few more volunteers, there are plenty of other places too in North Bucks. It wouldn’t be too hard to find volunteering work in a field you are interested in, and there’s the socialising part of it too.

Since you are reading this blog, you might like to do something at your local museum. Give it a try!

If you find volunteering not for you, not to worry; this being England, you’ll at least get tea and biscuits…

This post's photo waas taken with a Pentax camera and lens.

I make a small percentage from sales through Amazon links, no matter what you buy while you visit their site from here. This helps me but costs you nothing, so if you make a purchase via the NBW, thank you.

The Distance Project 37

Now it’s been over a year since the lockdown rules were almost completely relaxed, I’ve been returning to some previous subjects. There’s been a few changes...

This is the second post comparing things now and in lockdown; the previous one, How Have Things Changed After Lockdown? was just last week. Dates for older photos refer to the day the original post went live. The first few shots are from social calls in 2020, and the comparison shots from a few weeks ago. The earlier shots have their original captions.

The Rules Are Relaxed
The Distance Project 6 (4th June 2020)

I wrote in 2020:

Some restrictions were relaxed on Monday, so there’s been a few changes in behaviour. The more vulnerable are allowed to venture out, though there are still some curbs on what they can do. Visitors in the garden are now permitted.

(2020) My sister in law has been bringing “the boys”, my nephews, to see me nearly every week since they were babies; they are now 19 and 21. With the lockdown in place, this couldn’t happen. But with the changes to the restrictions, the whole family came to see me on Tuesday.
They brought camping chairs, biscuits and drinks. I sat at my garden table. It was great; nothing beats seeing the people you care about, face to face.

(2022) Two years later we are all sitting at the same garden table. My sister in law couldn’t make it, but here is my brother and the boys. Before, they couldn’t come in my house and we had to socialise in the garden. This time we chose to sit outside because the weather was nice. As soon as it was allowed in July 2021 we had started to socialise at close range again.